The United States is set to hit it’s current debt ceiling on September 14, 2012. The article, from the Market Oracle, focuses on whether gold is about to have another run, but we’re going to look at another part of the story.

Below, is the chart that should scare every Democrat – if not for the financial implications for every US household, but because it will scare every Republican (and the Republican political party will do every bit as much scaring as it can to get Romney in the White House) even more. I speak of course, of when the US will hit it’s Debt Ceiling.

US debt ceiling (forecast) September 2012

Now, I’m not suggesting that the US debt ceiling doesn’t matter – of course it does – but the reality is: it’s an arbitrary number, that has rarely gotten so much attention before President Barack Obama. If 16 trillion USD is unaffordable, then isn’t 14 trillion, or 10 trillion, why not 20 trillion?

The amazing situation for the US at this point is that despite having a larger defence budget than the top 9 other countries combined in the top ten defence budget list, even if they cut their defence budget to zero tomorrow, they would still have more than $15.5 trillion of debt to deal with – and this is before five percent of the baby boomers start collecting 20 – 30 years of social security checks each month… makes you think.